Italy has asked France to hand over a convicted killer believed to belong to one of Italy's most powerful mafia organisations. Edgardo Greco was arrested in France a month ago after 16 years on the run.
Greco, 63, was arrested in the French city of Saint-Etienne, where he had at one point run an Italian restaurant under an alias, according to French prosecutors.
The pizza chef is suspected of belonging to the notorious 'Ndrangheta, a powerful mafia organisation based in Calabria, southern Italy.
He is wanted in Italy to serve a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, according to Interpol, which reported last month's arrest.
He is also accused of the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro "as part of a mafia war between the Pino Sena and Perna Pranno gangs that marked the early 1990s".
Greco's lawyer, Benoit Courtin, said that Italy had filed its extradition request with the appeals court in the south-eastern city of Lyon.
Pizza chef
In June 2021, Greco became the owner of an Italian restaurant in Saint-Etienne called Caffe Rossini Ristorante, running it until November 2021, French prosecutors said.
He used the name Paolo Dimitrio and also worked in other Italian restaurants in the city.
Greco also worked evenings in a pizza restaurant under his assumed named, according to Italian media.
His arrest in February came a week after Italian police said they had dismantled a 'Ndrangheta mafia ring dominating a large area of southern Calabria and seized assets exceeding 250 million euros.
Fifty-six people, many already in prison, were put under criminal investigation for a series of crimes including mafia-related conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping, bribery and possession of weapons, police and prosecutors said.
(with AFP)
